There still may have been snow covering the baseball practice field at Yreka High on Monday, but it was not a problem for the Yreka Miners.

The Yreka baseball program now has an indoor batting cage installed in the small gym at the high school.

Now, the team can begin hitting early and not wait until the weather improves or endure weather conditions where it can be difficult on some days to hold a bat for a long period of time.

Monday was the first day the batting cage was up. A second batting cage is expected to be put up sometime next week, head varsity baseball coach Jason Freitas said.

Senior Cody Hoff was ecstatic to be able to have batting practice so early.

"It's awesome," he said. "It's freezing outside."

Hoff said that getting an early start will help him and his teammates be more prepared when the season begins.

A total of 14 varsity and JV players showed up on the first day on Monday. Participation is voluntarily, Freitas said.

He was impressed that a good number of players showed up despite the first batting cage session being put on at the last minute. Freitas plans to continue to offer the indoor batting cages a few times during the week and hopefully on Saturday's on days when the gym is available this month and next month.

Freitas said the Miner baseball season begins on Feb. 28 at a tournament at Foothill High in Palo Cedro in the Redding area. Another highlight for this upcoming season, Freitas said, is the fact that the team is playing in a tournament the first week of April in Anaheim.

Freitas said that the baseball program has been looking for awhile for a way to have batting practices indoors and get a head start on the season. He said that the two indoor batting cages are being donated by Rick Swenson and Greg Pucker. He also thanked superintendent Mark Greenfield for suggesting the small gym at the high school as a good location to install the batting cages.

Last weekend, Freitas and head JV coach Brian Wagy went to work getting the needed equipment to put up the cages.

"It will help us to be able to be indoors and work on hitting individually," with the players, Freitas said. He added that while they have tried to hit outdoors in the winter, the number of days can be limited and the cold weather conditions does affect the players, "When it's cold it's miserable to hit," Freitas said.

This is Wagy's first year as head JV coach. He previously was the assistant varsity coach.

Last year's JV coach, Mike Luckey, is now in Wagy's old position with the varsity squad, Freitas said.

Page 2 of 2 - Wagy said that it's great to offer players who are interested the chance to get in more hitting time to help make "early adjustments."

"It's going to be a big help," Wagy said.

The Miners had a very successful season last year. Yreka earned the Northern Athletic League title for the first time since 2008 and made it all the way to the Northern Section Division 4 title game. Yreka finished the 2012 season 22-10.